Mark B. Wise and Vineer Bhansali Volume 3, Number 1, First Quarter 2005 This article deals with the problem of optimal allocation of capital to corporate bonds in fixed income portfolios when there is the possibility of correlated defaults. Using a multivariate normal Copula function for the joint default probabilities we show that retaining the… Read more
Special Issues
Design of Financial Systems: Towards a Syntheses of Function and Structure
Robert C. Merton and Zvi Bodie Volume 3, Number 1, First Quarter 2005 This paper proposes a functional approach to designing and managing the financial systems of countries, regions, firms, households, and other entities. It is a synthesis of the neoclassical, neo-institutional, and behavioral perspectives. Neoclassical theory is an ideal driver to link science and… Read more
Asset/Liability Management and Enterprise Risk Management of an Insurer
Thomas S. Y. Ho Volume 3, Number 1, First Quarter 2005 Risk management techniques used in banks and trading floors are generally not applicable to insurance companies. Risk measures and risk monitoring approaches must be developed to respond to the challenges to the insurance industry. This paper describes the current risk management practices for both… Read more
A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method for Derivative Pricing and Risk Assessment
Sanjiv R. Das and Alistair Sinclair Volume 3, Number 1, First Quarter 2005 Derivative security pricing and risk measurement relies increasingly on lattice representations of stochastic processes, which are a discrete approximation of the movement of the underlying securities. Pricing is undertaken by summation of node values on the lattice. When the lattice is large… Read more
CASE STUDIES: The Fed Watchers
Jack L. Treynor Volume 2, Number 4, Fourth Quarter 2004 View PDF… Read more
Sifting Through the Wreckage: Lessons from Recent Hedge-Fund Liquidations
Mila Getmansky, Andrew W. Lo and Shauna X. Mei Volume 2, Number 4, Fourth Quarter 2004 We document the empirical properties of a sample of 1,765 funds in the TASS Hedge Fund database from 1977 to 2004 that are no longer active. The TASS sample shows that attrition rates differ significantly across investment styles, from… Read more
AIRAP – Alternative RAPMs for Alternative Investments
Milind Sharma Volume 2, Number 4, Fourth Quarter2004 This paper highlights the inadequacies of traditional RAPMs (risk-adjusted performance measures) and proposes AIRAP (alternative investments risk-adjusted performance), based on Expected Utility theory, as a RAPM better suited to alternative investments. AIRAP is the implied certain return that a risk-averse investor would trade off for holding risky… Read more
The Dangers of Mechanical Investment Decision-Making: The Case of Hedge Funds
Harry M. Kat Volume 2, Number 4, Fourth Quarter 2004 Over the last 20 years, investors have come to approach investment decision-making in an increasingly mechanical manner. Optimizers are filled up with historical return data and the “optimal” portfolio follows almost automatically. In this paper, we argue that such an approach can be extremely dangerous… Read more
Alternative Investments: CTAs, Hedge Funds, and Funds-of-Funds
Bing Liang Volume 2, Number 4, Fourth Quarter 2004 In this paper, we study alternative investment vehicles such as hedge funds, funds-of-funds, and commodity trading advisors (CTAs) by investigating their performance, risk, and fund characteristics. Considering them as three distinctive investment classes, we study them not only on a stand-alone basis but also on a… Read more
Extracting Portable Alphas from Equity Long/Short Hedge Funds
William Fung and David A. Hsieh Volume 2, Number 4, Fourth Quarter 2004 This paper shows empirically that Equity Long/Short (Equity L/S) hedge funds have significant alpha to both conventional as well as alternative (hedge fund-like) risk factors utilizing hedge fund data from three major data bases. Following the terminology introduced in Fung and Hsieh… Read more